Syracuse Basketball: Given pandemic, best to nix conference tourneys?

Syracuse basketball and its peers will have varying schedules in 2020-21 due to the pandemic, and maybe conference tourneys aren’t a good idea this season.

Syracuse basketball and other Division I squads around the country may begin their 2020-21 terms on Nov. 25, the day before Thanksgiving. That much we know at this juncture.

But amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, teams can only play up to 27 contests in the upcoming stanza, and some may compete in a bunch less than that.

It’s conceivable that the 2020-21 dockets for teams may prove all over the place, based on the league that they’re in, travel schedules, the availability of non-conference foes, and the list goes on and on.

NCAA officials are adamant that, at least for now, a 2021 Big Dance in the spring is in the cards, and obviously next March and April are months and months from now. Who knows how everything will pan out, come that point in time.

Numerous media reports of late have indicated that NCAA leaders are certainly weighing different kinds of formats for March Madness, and that’s logical. Heck, Atlantic Coast Conference coaches want to invite everyone to the party, although the NCAA quickly shot that idea down.

It is conceivable, however, that the 2021 NCAA Tournament could have fewer than the typical 68 squads. It could have 64 or 32 teams, or an entirely different number altogether.

ESPN’s resident bracketologist, Joe Lunardi, said of the 32-crew format, “It seems to me that a 32-team field would be an all-or-nothing proposition. As in, only the current 32 automatic qualifiers make it, or there are no automatic qualifiers and the committee selects what it thinks are the best 32 teams regardless of conference affiliation. The former would completely change the nature of the tournament in the short term, and the latter would accelerate the long-term fear of a Division I divorce in which the power conferences move out.”

Then there’s the issue of post-season conference tournaments, which follow the regular season and come right before the Big Dance. These league tourneys are tons of fun, and their winners usually determine automatic qualifiers for March Madness.

For me, I’ve always thought that the automatic invites to the NCAA Tournament should go to teams that win their regular-season crowns, rather than those squads that capture post-season tourneys. Sustained excellence over months outweighs getting hot over a span of several days.

To that end, given the pandemic and that limiting travel as much as possible is ideal, would it make sense for conferences to eliminate their post-season tournaments? Certainly, these events bring in significant amounts of revenue, and I recognize the financial implications involved.

"Here’s what Lunardi had to say on this topic. “There used to be a really wild thing in college basketball. Conference champions were determined by the teams that won the most games in the regular season. It was more important to be good for three months than three days. As a bracketologist, I think it wouldn’t be the end of the world if conference tournaments took a year off. Use the extra week or two to bring each conference closer to a true round-robin. But as a fan, I would really miss them!”"

I don’t always agree with Lunardi, especially when he has Syracuse basketball outside of his projected field of 68, but in this particular circumstance, I believe that he’s totally spot-on in his assessment.